Novel+Study+Focus

Animal Farm- by George Orwell Nicole Bruce January 7th, 2011 The book I chose to read for my novel study was Animal Farm by George Orwell. I think the overall theme of the story is that everyone is equal. It doesn't matter whether you're a human or an animal, you should be treated fairly.One of the main points of the story was having a rebellion against humans, since they did not treat the animals respectfully and as equals. As the story continued though, some of the animals, the pigs in particular, started to think they were better and more important, starting the cycle of inequality all over again. In truth, all of the animals were equals and deserved to be treated that way, regardless of what kind of animal they were.

I think the author was successful in getting his message across, because it was extremely clear to me as I read it, and was also a prominent part of the story line. Inequality is something that people and animals all over the world have been suffering from for a long time, and I think this was a good way to show people the kinds of situations are actually occurring. People have overthrown their leaders because they wanted to be equals, not having someone else calling the shots, and decide to run things themselves as equals. Before long though, someone else always steps up and soon things end up exactly where they were, with a new leader.

There are several good and bad points in the story. I really liked the story line. I thought it was a great way to involve the concept of communism, and was very well written. Saying that, I did not particularly like the author's style of writing. The way he wrote the story made it hard for me at times to understand what was happening. Also, being such a short book I found that many major events in the story occurred quite close together. I would have enjoyed it if the storyline had been spread out a bit more. I liked all the different aspects of the rebellion, such as creating a set of rules that were painted on the barn, and having meetings to discuss how to make Animal Farm better, as well as the animals actually being able to run a farm all by themselves and actually be quite successful at it.

I thought quite a few things were bizarre in this novel. First of all, animals cannot read or write, let alone talk. I also highly doubt that animals would be smart enough to conjure up an idea so complex as taking over and running a farm. Also, they learned how to trade with other farmers, plough the fields, harvest the grain, and keep everyone alive and relatively happy. This all seems way to advanced for a bunch of animals to be able to do. Also, by the end of the novel the pigs were walking on two legs, living in a house, and wearing human clothes.

I found it really interesting how much the end of the story mirrored the beginning. At the beginning of the story, the animals were under control of the farmers, humans, and they were underfed, overworked, and unhappy, while the humans lived in the house, and had all the luxuries. When the animals took over the farm, they swore never to do human things, like kill animals, wear clothes, live in a house, sleep in beds, walk on two legs, and drink alcohol. However, slowly through out the book the pigs started doing all of those things. They killed other animals, drank alcohol, moved into the house and slept in beds, and in the last chapter the pigs were walking on their hind legs, wearing clothes, and even renamed Animal Farm back to Manor Farm.

I don't think I learned very much from the novel because it is really hard for me to relate to it, but I think I realized how bad and unfair it is when someone takes advantage of other people, or in this case animals. The pigs took everything for themselves, and left the other animals with practically nothing. They deceived, overworked, underfed, and lied to all of the other animals. They told them that they needed to work, that they were getting fed much more then they actually were, and that life was better for them than it was when the people were ruling. This is true to people in many different situations, and I think it's wrong.

Although the entire story was pretty unbelievable, there were some aspects of the story, that if the animals were replaced with humans, I think would be quite believable. I think the entire concept of the animals taking over the farm, and then actually running it is unbelievable, because animals would never be able to do that. They aren't smart enough, and I'm pretty sure that animals can't communicate with each other to the degree of talking. They were also able to plough the fields, trade with other people, and run the farm without any difficulties. What I did find believable was the situation the animals were in. Wanting a change, getting the change an having someone take that away from them, slowly undermining them until they are right back where they started.

I think I would recommend this book to someone because it is overall a pretty good book. Although at times it is hard to understand and sort of brutal, it has a very good story line and is a really good book to read for a novel study, because there is a lot going on, and there's a lot to say about it. I didn't particularly like the book, but I would still recommend it because someone else might like the style of writing more than me.

I don't think I will read more by this author because although I like reading different styles of books, I didn't really like the way the author wrote, being extremely blunt in some areas and extremely vague in others. Also, this book was written a long time ago, and I like to read books that are newer and that I can relate more to.

I think the book was written for an older age group, like late teens and adults, because it isn't a very happy book and I don't think many young people would enjoy it very much. Also, since it is an older book it uses a writing style and many words that may be hard to understand by younger readers such as children. I don't think it was necessarily targeted to any specific age group, but I think the adults would be more drawn to the book because it is fairly serious.